C. ALL MODIFIED MAPS ARE AND SHALL REMAIN THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF BLIZZARD. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, YOU HEREBY ASSIGN TO BLIZZARD ALL OF YOUR RIGHTS, TITLE AND INTEREST IN AND TO ALL MODIFIED MAPS, AND AGREE THAT YOU WILL EXECUTE FUTURE ASSIGNMENTS PROMPTLY UPON RECEIVING SUCH A REQUEST FROM BLIZZARD. If an assignment is not possible, either locally or worldwide, you hereby grant to Blizzard an exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, assignable, sublicensable, unlimited right to use the Modified Maps temporally and geographically for any purpose, and in any way. This granting of rights includes, but is not limited to, the right to reproduce, distribute and publish the Modified Maps and to make the Modified Maps available to the public, in particular through the Service with the possibility of third parties to use, edit or modify the Modified Maps. The right to use the Modified Maps includes all types of uses unknown at the time of granting the rights. It is granted for an indefinite period of time and without any territorial restrictions. The right may be assigned or sublicensed to third parties by Blizzard without any restrictions.

Blizzard Acceptable Use Policy wrote:3. Ownership.Custom Games are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard. Without limiting the foregoing, you hereby assign to Blizzard all of your rights, title and interest in and to all Custom Games, and agree that should Blizzard decide that it is necessary, you agree to execute future assignments promptly upon receiving such a request from Blizzard. Additionally, Blizzard shall have the right to maintain the Custom Game on Blizzard’s Arcade service even if the developer of the Custom Game requests that Blizzard remove the Custom Game from the Arcade service.

5. Commercial Exploitation of Custom Games.Custom Game developers cannot develop Custom Games for profit at this time. Accordingly, a Custom Game cannot be sold, licensed, rented, nor can the Custom Game contain features that would support purchase transactions of any tangible or intangible content.

Except to Blizzard?

6. Incorporation of the Battle.net End User License Agreement.The terms and conditions of the Battle.net End User License Agreement are specifically incorporated into this policy by this reference. In the event that the terms of this policy are in conflict with the terms of the Battle.net End User License Agreement, the terms of this Policy shall supersede and govern over any such conflicting terms in the Battle.net End User License Agreement.

So does that mean #5 of the policy prevents Blizzard from sublicensing in 3C of the EULA?

No, wait, it says the Battle.net End User License Agreement, not the Starcraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ End User License Agreement.

If I'm reading all of the above right, you cannot remove your map from their service, and as a result it will always be subject to any alterations of Blizzard's terms (even if you object); you are required to "promptly" execute any assignment of rights that Blizzard requests, and if that is "not possible" they gain permanent and irrevocable rights to pretty much do anything with your map. Talk about a 1-2 knockout.

Isn't "without any territorial restrictions" a violation of a country's legal sovereignty? For example, German courts found that EULAs are not enforceable unless agreed to before purchase. Considering Blizzard does not offer refunds and the EULA is not presented to a customer until after purchase, if you don't agree to it you can never use the product and Blizzard basically gets to steal your money. In the case of maps, it wouldn't matter what protections German courts might make, Blizzard can act like China and take what it pleases under the guise of its unregulated EULA.

It seems to be some kind of insurance in case someone makes a campaign that catches on with the fanbase better than their garbage. If that happens, they could just take it and do whatever.The problem is doing this would be a PR disaster, any content grab of that type would be especially in today's vocal twittersphere gaming community. So what is the point of having all that again?

If you have a legal copyright for your IP items, or your product itself is protected, you can always take Blizzard to court and have their EULA abolished. I'm pretty sure this was just to stop the next DotA.

tf- wrote:It seems to be some kind of insurance in case someone makes a campaign that catches on with the fanbase better than their garbage. If that happens, they could just take it and do whatever.The problem is doing this would be a PR disaster, any content grab of that type would be especially in today's vocal twittersphere gaming community. So what is the point of having all that again?

SC2s close to dead, doubt any new campaign will come out

New campaigns of some kind are a given, there's some in the works right now on sc2mapster with playable maps out, it's just the quality that's all over the place. It might pick up if Blizz actually release the art tools already, it's as if they're afraid of something.

tf- wrote:It seems to be some kind of insurance in case someone makes a campaign that catches on with the fanbase better than their garbage. If that happens, they could just take it and do whatever.The problem is doing this would be a PR disaster, any content grab of that type would be especially in today's vocal twittersphere gaming community. So what is the point of having all that again?

SC2s close to dead, doubt any new campaign will come out

New campaigns of some kind are a given, there's some in the works right now on sc2mapster with playable maps out, it's just the quality that's all over the place. It might pick up if Blizz actually release the art tools already, it's as if they're afraid of something.